On Sporks

An open suggestion is tremendous thing. What one speaks or comments, even intended as a joke, may very well be taken seriously. Such is the inspiration for this essay.

Human culture, in all its various forms & flavors, does not arise in a vacuum. To say someone is 'cultured' often implies an air of aesthetic prowess and social agility. But I was taught that each culture, through its actions & artifacts, grows from adaptation. On this account, the roots of rituals, language, aesthetics, technology, politics, & recreation all find their home in the concrete conditions in which a culture arose. If this is the case, then what may one particular cultural artifact, the spork, tell us about the world we are adapting to?

Samuel W. Feancis submitted the first patent for what would one day become the spork in 1874. This makes sporks older than penicillin, the U.S. Air Force, automobiles, & television. However, sporks exploded in popularity after the fast food revolution. Why pack a knife, fork, & spoon in your to-go bag when you can just grab a spork? It comes free with any Bojangles Boberry Biscuit.

In the end, sporks exist for one reason: convenience. It is easier for suppliers & chains to distribute one spork to their customers, and it is convenient to eat your KFC mashed potatoes & coleslaw with a spork. Our world, especially the world most dominated by capitalism, has adapted to the point where convenience is a chief concern. I carry my personal banking app with me everywhere I go. Convenience & efficiency hold hands in our world. While convenience carries no inherent moral dilemma in itself, it perhaps hints at what might be lost when our adaptation snuffs out inconvenience.

Community is inconvenient. Vocation is inconvenient. Eating food & sleeping are, in a very real sense, inconvenient. And in turn, the rise of convenient apps, content, & tools to supplement our everyday tasks might only weigh us down. Maybe a virtue exists in patience, waiting for coffee to cool down, seeding appreciation for the sips when the temperature is just right.

I must clarify that I am just as dependent on convenient adaptations as the next person; I am not advocating against sporks. But a spork is never just a spork. Someone designed it to fulfill a purpose, to meet a need. It is a witness to a world adapting to make life not only livable, but more convenient. My only challenge for you & I is to examine & appreciate those inconvenient gifts which grant life depth & density beyond mere adaptation value, but that give value to adaptation.